Utopia Thomas More

Utopia

Thomas More

Thomas Morus, better known as Sir Thomas More (1478 – 1535), is an important lawyer, author and politician under the reign of Henry VIII of England and was Lord Chancellor from 1529 to 1532. He was no stranger to religion and was canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1935 as on e of the early martyrs of the schism that separated the English Church from Catholicism in the 16th century. In 2000, Pope John Paul II declared him Patron of Catholic Statesmen and Politicians. More’s knowledge in this field is present in his work. Although mainly a politician, More tried his hand in writing and his talent has  brought him the title of “Christian humanist” in continental Europe. His friend, friend, Erasmus of Rotterdam, dedicated his work “In Praise of Folly” (also know in Greek as “Morias Enkomion”) to More’s way of perceiving the world. The Greek title is a partial play upon words because the term “moria”, which shows the direct reference to Thomas More, also means “madness”. Erasmus, in his letters letters to other European humanists, humanists, described More as being a model man of letters and later as “omnium horarum homo”, a quote that will give the name of the play about More’s life, “A Man for All Seasons” S easons” (1950). The project the two of them undertook had the goal of re-examining and revitalising Christian theology through the study of the Bible and other important Christian works, through the sphere of Greek literature and philosophy. They even worked together on the translation from Latin of Lucianus’ work, which was published in 1506. As an author, More became known mainly thanks to “History of King Richard III” and “Utopia”. He also wrote religious polemics in the name of Henry VIII as an answer to Martin Luther’s attacks on the king of England. Although never finished, “History of King Richard III” is an important work in itself because it greatly influenced Shakespeare’s play “Richard III”. From this point of  view, both More’s and Shakespeare’s unflattering description of the former king of  England gave way to great controversy among contemporary historians, a bias they attributed to their allegiance to the reigning Tudor dynasty.

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However, More is best known for his novel nov el entitled “Utopia”. To create the name, he played with the Greek words “ou-topos” meaning “no place” and “eu-topos” meaning “good place”. In other words, More coined the word “utopia” which refers to the ideal and imaginary civilisation and the political po litical regime described in his novel. In the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus, the term Utopia is defined as “(the idea of) a perfect society in which everyone works well with each other and is happy” happy”1. The original edition of Utopia came with the symmetrical "Utopian alphabet" which was omitted in later editions. It is interesting because many believe this “alphabet” to be the predecessor of cryptography and that it may have led to the creation of  shorthand. The book presents the imaginary trip of o f Raphael Hythlodeaus to the imaginary island of Utopia. The protagonist’s name has hidden meaning as well. It alludes to Archangel Raphael, the purveyor of truth, but here, translated from Greek, the name means “the speaker of nonsense”. He describes the civilisation and customs of the imaginary island to More and to Pieter Gillis, but the main focus lies on the political system. In book one (“Dialogue of Counsel”), to give further credibility to his imaginary land, More includes the letters he wrote to Peter Gilles, town clerk of Antwerp, and Jerome de Busleyden, counsellor to Charles V. We also find here the example of  “Utopian alphabet” and its poetry and the humorous reason why there seem to be few travels to Utopia: someone had coughed during the announcement of the exact longitude and latitude. Raphael and More talk about various subjects such as the best way to counsel a  prince (a popular subject at the time), the tendency of European kings of starting wars over nothing and the use of money on useless endeavours. He goes even further and talks about the absurdity of applying the death penalty for theft and states that the thieves may resort to killing the witnesses if the penalty is the same. He blames the state of poverty and starvation on the limited access to common land because of sheep farming.

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http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dic http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/utopia tionary/british/utopia?q=utopia ?q=utopia

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When More suggests a job at a royal court to Raphael, he states that his views would not be taken into consideration and continues by comparing himself to Plato  because they both considered that good kings should govern philosophically. More goes further and states that the role of a philosopher is to work with a flawed system and try to improve it rather than start with the principles of a new system: “... for “... for in courts they will  not bear with a man's holding his peace or conniving at what others do: a man must  barefacedly approve of the worst counsels and consent to the blackest designs, so that he would pass for a spy, or, possibly, for a traitor, that did but coldly ap prove of such wicked practices”. It is in book two (“Discourse on Utopia”) that the utopian society is first mentioned as a part of the New World. Here, Raphael becomes the equivalent of  Amerigo Vespucci, the author himself stating that the protagonist is one of the 24 Vespucci men and sets his itinerary to coincide c oincide with that of the famous traveller. Utopia is described as: “…two hundred miles across in the middle pa rt, where it is widest, and  nowhere much narrower than this except towards the two ends, where it gradually tapers. These ends, curved round as if completing a circle five hundred miles in circumference, make the island crescent-shaped, like a new moon”. The island is said to have been bee n part of the continent but, with the help of a 15-mile 1 5-mile wide channel, Utopia was born. The capital city is Amaurote, which is situated in the centre of the island and is described as: "of them all this is the worthiest and of most  m ost  dignity" . Utopia contains 54 cities, each of them being divided into four equal parts and containing 6000 households. Each household contains 10 to 16 adults; 30 households form a “phylarchus”. For every ten phylarchus there is one Protophylarchus elected which rules over them. The 200 Protophylarchus elect a Prince who will rule the city for  life unless he is deposed or suspected of tyranny. The population is regularly redistributed between the ho useholds and cities to maintain the numbers even. Sometimes people from the mainland are invited to join the cities but if they do not like it there they are free to return. In case of overpopulation, colonies are set up on the mainland and if the number of citizens drops then those that live in the colonies are called back.

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In Utopia there is no private property, the goods being stored in warehouses and citizens taking what they need. Furthermore, there are no locks on the doors seeing that citizens are relocated to a new house every ten years. The main occupation is agriculture, men and women having equal responsibilities and workloads. They have to live on the countryside for two years and learn a second essential trade: weaving (mainly done by the women), carpentry, metal smiting and masonry. This is the method used to eradicate unemployment because each person must work. They usually work for six hours and wear the same clothing. In Utopia, the leading class is formed of scholars who are selected from an early age, according to their ability to learn. Then later become priests or ruling officials. Slavery is also mentioned, each household containing two slaves. They are either  citizens of other countries or Utopia’s criminals. The latter are chained with gold shackles  but are released when they have “served” their time. Gold has little value for the utopian citizens, it being used for buying products from other countries or bribing them to start wars among themselves. Other innovative ideas stated in the books boo ks are: a welfare state with free hospitals, euthanasia permissible by the state, priests being allowed to marry, divorce permitted,  premarital sex punished by a lifetime of enforced celibacy and adultery being punished  by enslavement. What is interesting in the description of Utopia is that it contrasts with the European countries. Compared to the contentious social life of European states, the island civilisation is described as orderly and with idealist social arrangements. Here, there is no  private property, men and women receive the same education and there is almost total religious tolerance. In Utopia, atheism is not accepted and Raphael comes with the theory that if one does not believe in a god and an afterlife he cannot be trusted. He further  explains by stating that that person would not acknowledge any authority or principle except for his own. Some state that the main message of the novel is that, no matter the society, there is more need for order and discipline than for freedom. It is said that More based the utopian society on the principles of monastic communalism, based on Acts of the Apostles’ biblical communalism. In this society, any attempt of discussing public p olicies

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anywhere else except for the forums leads in death. What is clear is that he used the description of this imaginary society to freely discus contemporary controversial matters. Through Raphael, More points po ints out the main conflict of his existence: the discrepancy  between his humanist beliefs and his role as a servant of the king’s court. He illustrated illustrated how he could try to bring the court members and the King to the humanist way of  thinking, but he further stated that, at some point, these views would come into conflict with the political reality of his time. Utopianism is thought to be a combination between Plato and Aristotle’s classical concepts on perfect societies and Latin rhetorical finesse. Although mostly a Renaissance movement, it continues well into the Enlightenment. It is clear that Utopia “fathered” the genre and that it influenced the works of  many important utopian writers. One of the most important writers of utopian novels is George Orwell who in “Animal Farm” and “Nineteen Eighty-Four” shows the flaws of  such a society. In many ways Thomas More became the most important man of his century. Many of the men of his time were shocked by his execution. Erasmus described him as one “whose soul was more pure than any snow, whose genius was such that England  never had and never again will have its like”2. Later, Jonathan Swift described him as “the person of the greatest virtue this kingdom ever produced”3. Lastly, historian Hugh Trevor-Roper seems to best describe the man that More was: “the first great Englishman whom we feel that we know, the most saintly of humanists, the most h uman of saints, the universal man of our cool northern renaissance”4.

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Daniel J. Boorstin (1999). The Seekers: The Story of Man's Continuing Quest to Understand His World. Random House Digital, Inc., p. 154. 3 Jonathan Swift, Prose Works of Jonathan Swift v. 13, Oxford UP, 1959, p. 123 4 Cited in Marvin O'Connell, "A Man for all Seasons: an Historian's Demur," Catholic Dossier 8 no. 2 (March–April 2002): 16–19

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